I would like to start with apologizing to everyone waiting for the update and patches for the last 9 months. Shi0n and other translators were doing their job, but it was me not making regular updates here, even after I got quite a bit of spare time. Here is the current progress of the project:

Sora: 8288/8288 (100.00%)

Nao: 6761/7311 (92.48%)

Akira: 7890/8793 (89.73%)

Kazuha: 6634/6634 (100.00%)

Motoka: 2372/6261 (37.89%)

Common: 2096/2096 (100.00%)

Total: 34041/39383 (86.44%).

The patch is available, as always, on #xilexio@irc.rizon.net, in the title of the channel. Alternatively, you can try sending me a mail at xilexio.yns@gmail.com and I’ll respond with the link after some time. I apologize for not responding many people during those 9 months. If you sent me a request on e-mail more than a month ago and still somehow can’t get it on IRC, you can write me another e-mail, this time I’ll try to respond.

Few things happened during the time I was not updating the blog. The main problem was that Shi0n got busier for some time and there was a risk that he’d stop the translation. But fortunately he resumed soon after and, as you can see from the numbers, he’s approaching the end of the translation phase of Nao’s route.

Also, two translators approached me. The first one wanted to translate the whole Haruka na Sora, though it did not work out, so the progress with Haruka na Sora is still stalled and as you can see on last Haruka na Sora status update post. The second one agreed on helping in translation of Motoka’s route and translated a solid chunk of few hundred lines right away, though I did not check it yet. I’m yet to organize the translation work with Motoka’s route.

I did not get to translating missing H-scenes from Akira’s route and haven’t gotten any information from the Anonymous about translation check progress of Akira’s route.

The one thing I can say after playing again part of the current translated version (common route + part of Kazuha’s route) is that, while it is readable, there are still many mistranslations and it’s quite hard to read. We’ll need solid proofreading, but that’s only after either I or somebody else do a translation check – otherwise quite a bit of the proofreading work will be wasted.

Another thing to do pretty soon is to define some standards for names, onomatopoeia, etc. For sure we’re going to use Japanese honorifics like -san, -chan and try to preserve the whole Japanese atmosphere where possible, but the question is whether e.g. -sensei should be translated to a proper English word “teacher” or “doctor” (or even something else, depends on context, really). Or if Ojou-sama should be left as it is instead of “lady”, “milady” or some other proper English word. As for onomatopoeias and mimeses, especially in H-scenes, there is a question of how to put them into the text, so that is looks okay. One idea would be to put it as a part of sentence, e.g. “Mhmm, this ice cream… lick… sure is… slurp… melting really fast.” and other to put it in some kind of markers, e.g. “Mhmm, this ice cream *lick* sure is *slurp* melting really fast”. If you have any ideas for a good solution, preferably one that was successful in other games, please share it in the comments. Keep in mind that some sentences, particularly in H-scenes, tend to be composed mostly of onomatopoeias and that, contrary to many games, we have a small limit on how many letters (including spaces and markers (*) and other markers) can fit onto the screen. Maybe I’ll be able to remove that limitation later, but so far I am not able to split one message (what fits on the text window at once) into two messages.

Again, I apologize for being so lazy for last few months. I will try to keep updating the blog every 1-2 months.

Is it a numerical character limit, a line limit, or a screen space limit?
Since it’s designed for Japanese output I’m sure there won’t be word wrapping, but do you have to insert new line characters into your translation, or is it automatic?
I might be able to help if you pass on some of the details, though it will probably mean you have to distribute a patch for the game’s executable.

I would certainly prefer to have all the proper honorifics in place instead of a translation. In most cases the honorifics affect the nuance of the whole phrase. For example the feel you get from reading the phrases
“Kojima-sensei is so pretty.” or “Kojima teacher is so pretty.” is totally different – especially for those of us who understand Japanese.

And then of course the latter feels stiff – as do translated honorifics. You simply can’t get a smoothly flowing paragraph if you use translated honorifics.

*Addition to my post above, as it doesn’t seem like we can edit the posts.*

For the sake of consistency it would be a better idea to leave honorifics such as “Ojou-sama” as is. Since “Ojou-sama” can be translated to “Lady”, “Milady”, “Princess”, “Young lady”, “Miss” and so on depending on the context, it can generate confusion in the reader; especially so if the reader doesn’t know any Japanese.

Anyhow, just my two cents. You’ll obviously do as you feel is best and I don’t plan on complaining either way.

Please don’t translate things like sensei or ojou-sama. Leave them untranslated. Actually I can go as far as saying even don’t translate things like Itadakimasu. As for other one both is fine by me but using * seems better I think. Well I am ok whichever is more convenient for you on that part.